rapturerebornmmorpgfandomcom-20200216-history
Watertight Doors and Bulkheads
Sitemap Watertight Doors and Bulkheads How to keep Rapture from Accidentally ALL Drowning. * See Also Securis * See Also Construction KEEPING THE OCEAN WATER OUT ... --- --- --- --- --- The Crushing Pressure : * Failsafe Seals 'failing' - report any indicators of failure IMMEDIATELY * New leaks breaking out every day - need for quick repairs (water fills up pretty quickly) * Securis doors Warrantee expirations * Bulkheads between large building sections have to have self actuating mechanisms so that they seal if the ocean pressure ever breaks thru to either side. Electrical breakers have to throw, valves have to close and open passages ( like Pneumo tubes ) have to be blocked strongly enough to withstand the many (19+) atmospheres of pressure that will suddenly bear down on the entire bulkhead. Obviously the entire bulkhead itself must withstand the pressure. The large opening of doors likewise have to seal completely. --- --- --- Leak-Proofing Rapture : Missing Bulkhead Doors : Many things they show in the game are simplistically impractical, and didn't include "serious" details of how things would really work. Most was done simply for visual effect (its a Game after all). Again, there's the game production issues of budget/time/effort/rendering limitations when it is a 'shooter game' with a sci-fi caricature overlay. It is logical that they wouldn't spend much effort detailing spaces out of sight (but still might have been indirectly indicated -- AND showing they thought about such things as if it WAS a real place). Since we have the evidence of Rapture still being inhabited (in BS2) 20 years after its construction, its structural design could not have been THAT shoddy or ineffective in containing the inevitable leaks (including an extended period with a lack of competent maintenance). We see the frequently used AE doors (BS2) still operational, and the Bathyspheres which likewise needed some kind of hefty airlock doors. There would likewise be mechanisms used for emergency bulkheads which close off major portal connections (normally large openings) between buildings (the biggest probably being for Metro Trolley Transit tracks passing between buildings). Adequate Bulkhead Door mechanisms would have existed to assure the safety from catastrophic leaks. Employing a mechanism with counterweights adds complexity, and the idea of a simple gravity drop (of a fairly bulky heavy door) but with additional weight added could work for an infrequently used mechanism (raising it again could be very slow and manually supervised, thus allow simplicity). Consider though how much (huge) weight is needed to cut through a steel tram frame, so a less massive tandem pair of spaced doors might be used (redundancy is always good when it prevents a section of the city becoming a Cold Wet Dark Tomb). - A Proper Emergency Bulkhead Mechanism : Not being quite as fantastical (Fantasy Mechanics/Science/Society/Religion/Lack-Of-Consistency and Cohesion) as Infinite BS, you can probably reason for Rapture to be built at an appropriate expense, and with the use of available (and well proven for its time) era technology and materials/techniques being employed. Simplicity usually also helps with reliability in mechanisms. For Rapture there would be a Systematic and extensive use of such Barriers ... definitely. Nobody is stupid enough NOT to have them and for half of Rapture to drown from one major leak. A meter+ thick slab of reinforced concrete dropping within a reinforced edged slot is pretty effective if those edges can be sufficiently sealed, and it can be seated properly (not blocked from closing - water at the pressure involved would fill up large volumes quite fast, from a gap any more than a crack). For aesthetics they would be made unobtrusive (excusing why we didn't notice them) - there can be thin veneer over the slots. More substantial 'break away' flooring is fairly simple mechanically (WHEN the Tram tracks go through a bulkhead THAT is a bit more complicated, but hardly difficult to make workable). By leaks, I also would include massive structural failure which Big Daddies likely couldn't solve (and the pump systems cannot possibly handle). The BDs also didn't exist (and were not foreseen) when Rapture was first built, so humans would be 'it' for all the expected work. Smaller leaks BDs could handle, and probably even were trained to predict and take prevenative action for (ie- "OOOOOM" Sonar sounding out internal cracks in structure components). This all relies on Rapture being well designed and built from the start which its seems it mostly was. - Those Airlocks which the game has used as Level transitions could only work for low traffic paths as they restrict traffic/free passage (by their cycling time). I suppose they could be located at building/structure 'Break' points - intended flexible connections where they can compensate for some shifting seabed (minor earthquakes in particular - Rapture is located near a Divergent boundary, and not a Convergent boundary where tectonic plates move at each other and generate significant earthquakes). --- --- --- Emergency Bulkhead Considerations : Any automated seal or a blast door or gate is made up of any number of moving parts that slide/rotate in either direction to open - horizontal, vertical in one or two parts. Things can get more or less complicated depending on the mechanisms use of gravity (dropping a heavy door is easier than lifting one into a closed position and its weight may 'crush' obstructions out of the way). If the door is for security, then it needs to be firm and resilient to tampering, inaccessible to disassembly and to external damage from at least one side, but securely contained also from the other side to keep the mechanism stable and isolated from accidental damage. The bulkhead door should be inset within a track for proper securing/sealing and for structural stability reasons. You need safety and security from either direction as a design goal (either side could have the leak/flood). You also have to account for additional space to house the motors, hydraulics, magnetism or whatever tech is employed to operate the door (possibly several mechanisms depending on the design and the intended function of the door). You usually have a space/volume beyond the doorway to act as a door rest/recess into the structure for a heavy door to clear, which increases its material costs. A worthwhile expenditure especially if the door is for safety or security. You need a strong containment wall between the area on one side, the resting space for the door and on the other side - doubling the reinforced surface structure at that point. The door mechanism requires a full maintenance access from both sides or you are 'out of luck' when it malfunctions or gets jammed. Even simple repair/servicing otherwise would necessitate some major disassembly and reassembly operation, which is clearly undesirable in most of the environments in which automated sliding doors are used in Sci-Fi. If the door itself is damaged, you would have to completely remove it from its track. If access to the mechanism is meant to be sealed away from both sides, you'll also need external access to be inaccessible/secured from the immediate area on either side, which further complicates any maintenance process and overall design of the entire complex housing such doors. The Bigger the doorway and the doors, more Complicated and resource required for the entire thing. --- --- --- Various Seal Mechanisms Between Building Structures and Other Things : Rapture's Utility system is composed of Vents/pipes/cables/etc have to connect through the compartmentalization that makes up Rapture. Materials expand and contract at different rates, so there will always be some kind of gap involved, which needs to be sufficiently secured and plugged with a strong (preferably narrow) flexible material (Seals). There are such transitions especially at the points where prefabricated building sections are joined. When any major leaks happen, causing increased pressure in a compromised section, the seals beyond it at least minimize/contain the leakage spreading until a time when the leak's cause can be fixed. The doors which seal sections (in MY plans) are often in sequential pairs for a safer redundancy (but allow immediate passage unlike the 'cycling' Security Airlocks we see in a number of places (those are used for game 'level' transitions which you CANNOT just walk through ...). --- --- --- Pressure_Doors.PNG AEdoors2.jpg SecurisDoor.jpg AEdoors.jpg SEC111.jpg BioshockMovieConcept2.jpg|Bathyspheres require doors able to withstand the same high pressure Realdoor.jpg|Real Submarine door --- --- --- --- --- . .